In the latest close session, CRH (CRH) was down 1.14% at $111.25. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.1% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.57%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.33%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the building material company had gained 0.08% lagged the Construction sector's gain of 0.5% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.57%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of CRH in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $2.17, indicating a 15.43% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.23 billion, up 6.78% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.62 per share and revenue of $37.73 billion, which would represent changes of +4.27% and +6.07%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for CRH. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.33% higher. CRH presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, CRH is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 20.01. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 19.62.
One should further note that CRH currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.46. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. CRH's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.92 as of yesterday's close.
The Building Products - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Construction sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 156, this industry ranks in the bottom 37% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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CRH PLC (CRH): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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